ABSTRACT
The myth of Saturn would have been nothing more than the Roman version of the Greek myth of Cronus, if it had remained confined within the boundaries of imitative literature. This lacklustre theory would have been fatal for the myth of Saturn, if this god, whose name is associated with the myth of the Golden Age of Rome during the first century BC. In the Georgics, Virgil deliberately associates the happiness of the Italian peasant with the way of life formerly established on earth by Saturn and in this way updates and romanizes the Golden Age. The sudden introduction of the mythical dimension into Roman history was consecrated in the Aeneid, where Virgil develops his ideas on the royalty of Latium, of which Saturn became the guarantor over the ages. It confirms the political nature of the myth of Saturn, although its grandeur is lost in an excess of imperial propaganda.
